Tangled up in Blue Cross

This piece I just finished for The New Yorker site is up now. It's for a three-part story on the confusion, complexities and problems in the health care industry, and maybe a few solutions, as millions of Americans prepare to choose insurance plans next month:

Thinking about trying to find another health insurance policy, or even dealing with any insurance company in any capacity, makes my eyes go crossed, and my brain go numb. But this piece was fun to work on! My first one for The New Yorker! Thank you to Chris!

Also check out part two and three of the article.

The Replacements (not the cool Paul Westerberg kind)

I have a piece in the current issue of Newsweek. I believe it should be on stands until Friday, at least that's when I picked up my copy last week (it's the one with the cool Nigel Buchanan illustration of a saluting Marine on the cover). The piece is for the weekly Two Numbers column, which contrasts two different numbers, on things like the median wealth of the average American family in 2007, vs. 2013, or sales of kale in the U.S., vs. sales of corn chips, and has featured such artists as Serge Bloch, and Edel Rodriguez recently. I was excited to get the email from Mike, the A.D., as this is one of those big national publications I've been looking forward to working with since I was in art school. Anyway, this week the column compared the price of a knee or hip replacement, at two different hospitals:

At St. Josephs Medical Center in Yonkers, you can expect to pay the princely sum of $17,068. Ouch. But wait- at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, look forward to a bill of $139,072! The article makes the case that, love it or hate it, Obamacare has made medical costs more transparent, which is a good thing.

You can get to the article here, but you may need a subscription to read it. Thank you to Mike, for the great opportunity! Here's a pic of my copy:

Don't mess with Texas...

... because they don't have health insurance if they get hurt. Just kiddin', Tejano friends! Anyway, this edition of the Dallas Observer is out in newsstands today. My illustration on the cover is for a story on the uphill battle the new Affordable Care Act- dubbed "Obamacare"- has in front of it in Texas.

As Tea Partiers and conservative Republicans in Texas work to dismantle and defund the new health care law, people with limited or no access to medical treatment, and don't qualify for Medicaid, are being left to fall through the cracks. As the story states: "Texas' decision not to expand Medicaid has left more than 1 million people in the gap, uninsured." Texas already stands as the country's least insured state. From the article: "... Texas boasts the highest rate of uninsured residents (about 23 percent, or 6.2 million) as well as the highest number of uninsured children (some 852,000)." Pretty sad. You can read the whole story here. Thank you, Tracie!